Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 8, 2006 1:18:12 GMT -5
N.D. killer eligible for death penalty
In Fargo, a federal jury decided Thursday that the sex offender convicted
of kidnapping college student Dru Sjodin, killing her and leaving her body
in Minnesota ravine is eligible for the death penalty.
The jury now must decide whether Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. should be sentenced
to death for the murder. That phase of the trial is scheduled to begin
Monday afternoon.
The same jury of seven women and five men found Rodriguez, 53, guilty last
week of a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death.
Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lake, Minn., was a University of North Dakota
student when she was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks
shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003. Her body was found the following April in
a ravine near Crookston, Minn., the town where Rodriguez lived.
Prosecutors said Sjodin was beaten, raped and stabbed.
Jurors were asked to answer eight questions in deciding whether Rodriguez
was eligible for the death penalty, including whether he planned to kill
Sjodin and whether he caused serious bodily injury to two women he
assaulted in 1974.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley told the jury Rodriguez showed an escalating
pattern of violence and "shockingly evil" acts. Rodriguez "terrorized Dru
Sjodin in her last hours," he said.
Rodriguez's attorney, Richard Ney, said Sjodin's death was horrible but
did not meet the legal requirements of eligibility for the death penalty.
North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal
cases.
The last state-sanctioned execution in North Dakota was a hanging in 1905,
said state Supreme Court Justice Dale Sandstrom, who researched and wrote
about the subject. 2 others were sentenced to hang but neither did, and
the last man sentenced to death by hanging was spared in 1915, Sandstrom
said.
(source: Associated Press)
In Fargo, a federal jury decided Thursday that the sex offender convicted
of kidnapping college student Dru Sjodin, killing her and leaving her body
in Minnesota ravine is eligible for the death penalty.
The jury now must decide whether Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. should be sentenced
to death for the murder. That phase of the trial is scheduled to begin
Monday afternoon.
The same jury of seven women and five men found Rodriguez, 53, guilty last
week of a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death.
Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lake, Minn., was a University of North Dakota
student when she was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks
shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003. Her body was found the following April in
a ravine near Crookston, Minn., the town where Rodriguez lived.
Prosecutors said Sjodin was beaten, raped and stabbed.
Jurors were asked to answer eight questions in deciding whether Rodriguez
was eligible for the death penalty, including whether he planned to kill
Sjodin and whether he caused serious bodily injury to two women he
assaulted in 1974.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley told the jury Rodriguez showed an escalating
pattern of violence and "shockingly evil" acts. Rodriguez "terrorized Dru
Sjodin in her last hours," he said.
Rodriguez's attorney, Richard Ney, said Sjodin's death was horrible but
did not meet the legal requirements of eligibility for the death penalty.
North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal
cases.
The last state-sanctioned execution in North Dakota was a hanging in 1905,
said state Supreme Court Justice Dale Sandstrom, who researched and wrote
about the subject. 2 others were sentenced to hang but neither did, and
the last man sentenced to death by hanging was spared in 1915, Sandstrom
said.
(source: Associated Press)